Price takes town to court over property assessment

KITTERY, Maine — Gerrish Island residents Randy Price and Mark Steffen have filed court action against Kittery, charging "abuse of discretion" in increasing the assessed value of their home by more than $400,000.

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By Deborah McDermott

seacoastonline.com

By Deborah McDermott

Posted Jul. 19, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Deborah McDermott
Posted Jul. 19, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

KITTERY, Maine — Gerrish Island residents Randy Price and Mark Steffen have filed court action against Kittery, charging "abuse of discretion" in increasing the assessed value of their home by more than $400,000.

The action in York County Superior Court comes as the Town Council prepares to hold a public workshop on the town's assessment process Monday, July 28, with Town Assessor Bruce Kerns.

Price, a veteran Boston television news anchorman, and Steffen charge in the complaint that the town's assessment of their Tower Road property was "manifestly wrong." As a result, their property taxes increased 43 percent.

The property is currently assessed at $1.2 million, up from $845,000 in 2012.

Although the couple bought the property for $1.3 million in 2012, Price argues the crux of the matter is that their home is being disproportionately hit compared to other waterfront homes.

The couple searched the town's assessment database for coastal properties. He said they found a number of properties with bigger houses and more land with assessed values that remained unchanged after a townwide revaluation in 2013.

They brought their documentation to the Board of Assessment review in late May. According to court documents, despite "sufficient evidence to establish that their property is substantially overvalued, resulting in an injustice," the board denied the appeal.

"We only sought a $200,000 reduction in assessed value. The fact that we were trying to be moderate came back to bite us," Price said.

Furthermore, the audio and video recording of the hearing stopped in the middle of the hearing — an official record which Price and Steffan wanted to use in planning their court appeal.

"Despite requests to remedy this situation," the town did not, according to the court appeal, "in violation of Maine law and the plaintiffs' right of due process."

Price said this week that he felt he had no choice but to file the action.

"The truth of the matter is that this whole neighborhood is disproportionately jacked up. There are a bunch of us who have been pursuing this process," he said.

Town Manager Nancy Colbert Puff said that in the days after the Portsmouth Herald first wrote about Price's concerns in June, she did receive five to 10 e-mails from residents "raising the same kind of issues, that they felt their assessment was unfair."

She said when the town went through a revaluation, all residents were notified and were able to have meetings to discuss their assessments.

"I'm confident that everyone did have a chance to comment on their new values," Colbert Puff said.

Town Council Chairman Jeff Thomson said the council "certainly did not hear a tremendous hue and cry when the new values came out." But Price argues that's because many properties are undervalued, which is why his property stood out by comparison.

Colbert Puff said the state annually checks the town's valuation against sales "and the state ranks our values of very high quality."

The council nonetheless will meet with Kerns in a workshop session July 28 to discuss the assessment process, and there will be time for residents to ask questions as well, he said.

He said people will not be allowed to talk about individual properties, but rather ask questions about the overall process.